Modern Patina Found: Milgauss Black dial faded to grey/blue

[traf]

While on a business trip in Portland, OR I was casually exploring when I happened upon a place called "Watchworks". Intrigued, I walked in and I'm instantly greeted by gentleman named Sam.

Upon examining their expansive used watch collection, which included a fine selection of Patek, omega and Rolex, a pristine 1680 caught my eye. After explaining my long search for this particular sub reference, Sam brought out 3 other, much nicer patina'd models from the back including a red sub.

At this point we got to talking some more and the shops owner, alex, poked his head up from behind the watchmakers glass corner. He then proceeded to bring out some of the most beautiful vintage rolexes I've seen in my years of pseudo collecting... Gilt dials, underlines, PCGs, radium... The real deal.

After some serious show and tell, he pulls off his personal watch from his wrist:



A real life, faded dial, current model black milgauss.

My jaw dropped in disbelief. How could this be?? Upon examining closely, it appears to be the real deal.

Thoughts?? Is this the first account of a modern (2007-?) Rolex with a faded dial? Is there hope for modern Rolex patina after all?

For reference, this is what the above watch started its life as:




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[Old Expat Beast]

Well, the seconds hand appears to have some kind of damage, so I would say the watch has seen some kind of action that caused this.

[Coronette]

Originally Posted by Old Expat Beast

Well, the seconds hand appears to have some kind of damage, so I would say the watch has seen some kind of action that caused this.

Yea maybe water intrusion.

[AF_Rob]

I've never seen that before... looks "not normal"

[zama]

Unless he is living in a different climatic earth to the rest of us I don't know how something could fade that far that quick.

[Punishher7]

From my limited knowledge of vintage watches that does not appear to me natural aging. I also noticed the damage and possibly rusting second hand.

[Friar]

Visited Watchworks many times and actually purchased a couple watches from Alex. I didn't realize they had more vintage pieces in the back. Hate to admit it, but I never really paid much attention to the their used pieces. They had two watchmakers on premises although one, C21 certified, left this spring to start his own business.

[Jfullm42]

Originally Posted by Friar

Visited Watchworks many times and actually purchased a couple watches from Alex. I didn't realize they had more vintage pieces in the back. Hate to admit it, but I never really paid much attention to the their used pieces. They had two watchmakers on premises although one, C21 certified, left this spring to start his own business.

Ya I have visited many times as well and didn't know they had many others in back too. Kelly Hunter, the cw21 that left, is a great guy btw!

[seadog]

Bizarre , looks almost water damaged & then cleaned up.

[Snow-Dweller]

IMHO, this is a modded watch.

[Muzz]

Serious mod. Nothing natural about that.

[RolexAuthority]

Gotta say water damage or not it looks superb

[badass09]

The OP said the watch is from 2007 but it can clearly be seen that the watch is a "v" serial... so....??



And there is some rust or corrosion on the lightning second hand.. maybe the watch has had some water damage before..

[tkc324]

Water damage seem like a logical explanation

[bharat]

Salt water exposure perhaps?

[The Joker]

too many sun-beds?

[fitzs]

Slight marking at the hand attachments tells me they've been removed, possibly more than once. As said previously, this is water damage or a modded dial. My vote goes to the latter.

Many highly-desirable vintage tropicals and other patinaed dials are due to water/moisture exposure, so it just depends on what you're okay with as a buyer/collector of these kids of anomalies. I just doubt that water would do something like that to that dial, completely changing the texture and color so uniformly while leaving the indices and lettering glossy and untouched. If we apply the same logic to these characteristics that Phillip/Rolex Passion Report does to evaluating "vintage"/"tropical"/"patina" dials, the uniform nature of the color and the texture as well as the very nice condition of the lettering and applied indices would tell us without question that this is an aftermarket modified original dial or just a modded fake dial.

[watchwatcher]

I don't know, but it looks cool!

[Daytona4130]

Damage or not, it's interesting to see a random serial piece with some patina.. thanks for sharing, I think it still looks cool

[johnnyjazz]

I have seen this before with ink that has had to much cellulose thinners added to its consistency before screen printing, uv light would cause that in no time, nothing new here I think.

[Watchgeek5000]

Can't wait to see the lume on the white dial versions completely turn to salmon pink!

[Michael Alexander]

Mine is 8 years old and I’ve noticed that it has been been turning grey as well. It has a lot of time in the sun and exposure to TIG and MiG welding flash. I stumbled upon this blog looking for answers to why it was fading (though not to the extreme of the original post).

[Chadridv]

Originally Posted by Michael Alexander

Mine is 8 years old and I’ve noticed that it has been been turning grey as well. It has a lot of time in the sun and exposure to TIG and MiG welding flash. I stumbled upon this blog looking for answers to why it was fading (though not to the extreme of the original post).

Let’s see some pics

[Onikage]

I've seen a modern white dial Daytona that was turning creamy. Like above it looked cool but bizarre for such a modern watch.

[teo]

Black become Grey dial. Value up x3

[UmichNJ]

It’s been a while, but I recall Alex told me the story of the original owner. I guess it was an electrical lineman, and he believes that the constant exposure to the sun caused the patina.

[david9962000]

Mine is doing the something. And I purchased it new in 2008 so I know it's original.

[crazycarlitos]

Originally Posted by david9962000

Mine is doing the something. And I purchased it new in 2008 so I know it's original.

That’s kinda cool

[CPZorro]

Originally Posted by david9962000

Mine is doing the something. And I purchased it new in 2008 so I know it's original.

That looks amazing!

[Mattt]

Originally Posted by david9962000

Mine is doing the something. And I purchased it new in 2008 so I know it's original.

Very nice. Today I learned.